Tim swallowed the bile that arose in his throat. He needed to remain strong. With Tony out of commission, Gibbs needed him now. He willed himself not to vomit. Just imagining the horrors that had been inflicted on Tony and Gibbs was enough to practically disable him, but seeing the evidence of exactly what happened sickened him more than he thought possible.
Ziva looked around the now abandoned warehouse, her keen eye ready to pick up any hint of where Gibbs could be. "Then where did they…?" Ziva asked, turning a circle. "Wait a minute. McGee!"
She walked over to a table in the corner of the room and began to rifle through some paperwork. She held out a map of the north side of Rock Creek Park, on which some notes had been scribbled.
"Check this out," she offered the map for his perusal. The notation in the corner of the map indicated a specific date and time.
"A meeting?" Tim asked.
"We have less than thirty minutes. Let's go!" Ziva ordered as they raced from the scene.
***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS*** NCIS***
The van door opened and Gibbs felt strong arms grab him and yank him from the vehicle. He was bound, gagged and blindfolded, yet had been left lying in the middle of the empty rear of the van, to bounce around unsecured throughout their most recent excursion.
The ground was soft beneath his feet, the snow almost refreshing against his injuries. He took a moment to appreciate the open air of the great outdoors before he was pulled painfully forward. It was achingly cold, and Gibbs' body had been pushed far beyond torture. Despite his mental enjoyment of the fresh air, his exhausted body began to shiver uncontrollably.
He was unceremoniously shoved to his knees. One of his captors tore off Gibbs' blindfold and stood before him, sneer in place.
"You know what your boy is up to right now? He's doing whatever it takes to find out where my wife and kid are in order to save your miserable life. Doesn't that make you all warm inside?" His voice was gruff, and the white steam that came from his mouth was hitting Gibbs directly in the face.
Gibbs ignored him. He found a remote spot in the distance on which to focus and began to tune Groce out.
"This is where it all goes down," Groce continued. "Either your boy will show up with the information I need, or he'll leave with a dead body…if he's lucky."
When he received no response from Gibbs, he continued. "I haven't really decided what I want to do. Maybe I'll kill you both anyway. That could be fun. Which would be most rewarding, killing your boy in front of you, or killing you first and letting the last thing you hear be his screams of denial?" the wicked man asked with a chuckle.
Gibbs continued to pretend he couldn't hear the man, yet tears were wetting his face. He only hoped Groce believed the moisture was from the snow. The last thing he wanted was to give him the satisfaction of showing how much his words affected him.
***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS*** NCIS***
Tim rattled off the new information to Abby as Ziva raced toward the rendezvous point indicated on the map. At least, they hoped that's what was going on. For all they knew for certain, it could be as vacant as the warehouse had been.
Abby punched the new address into her system and pulled up more information for them. "It's in the middle of the woods outside Rock Creek Park."
"Anywhere near where Tony was dumped?" Tim asked.
"Less than a mile from there. Same area, but different location," Abby continued. "Maybe I could hack into satellite images and see if they are there with Gibbs right now."
"Don't do it, Abs," Tim scolded her. "We are almost there. I know we're all desperate to find him, but we'll know for certain in just a few minutes. Don't break any laws. Unless it becomes critical, of course."
"You guys be careful! With the way Ziva drives, SWAT is probably quite a bit behind you," Abby warned.
"We'll be fine," Tim said as he disconnected the phone.
"Abby says the new location is in the same general vicinity as the place where they left Tony, but not in the same place," Tim explained to Ziva.
"Well, that's informative." Ziva's clipped tone belied her anxiety.
"We'll make it, Ziva," Tim assured her.
We must. Gibbs is counting on us," Ziva agreed.
***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS*** NCIS***
"Thanks, Director Vance," Abby answered brightly as she disconnected the phone.
Her emotions had been all over the place for a week now, and she was more hopeful at this moment than she could ever remember being in her entire life. Tony was back safe, Tim and Ziva had found Gibbs and everything would soon be back to normal.
"Abby, have you seen Tony?" Jimmy asked as he walked into the lab.
"No, but I really don't have time right now, Jimmy," Abby said quickly. "Ziva and Tim found Gibbs! I'm headed up to MTAC to see if there is anything we can use to legally see what's going on out there. Vance is meeting me there."
"I'll get Ducky," Jimmy said and hurried back out of the room, his original mission forgotten.
Abby grabbed everything she thought she might need, gave Bert a kiss on the cheek, and then bolted from the room as if it were on fire.